Crckrjack and I played a couple games of Hard yesterday. The first game was just the 2 of us and we did pretty well. Didn't beat it, but Crckrjack made it the whole game without dying until the end. I was being aggressive and dying a lot...

Second game was with randos. There was a level 25 Swat who completely dominated. He would run up to the big guys and just point blank empty a clip into them and kill them almost instantly.We didn't have a commando any of the games and that was really annoying. It's nice to have those red outlines.

Hans Volter begins every phase in "attack" mode, where he will attempt to use his weapons to shoot at players or throw grenades. He will always try to use grenades as soon as they come off cooldown.The team should be unloading all their weapons on Hans as he is shooting or tossing grenades, while keeping their distance and dodging grenades. Players in front of Hans should attempt to shoot his head or chest core, while players behind him should shoot his backpack core, which is a huge target.At 60%, 41% and 25% health thresholds he will enter "hunt" mode as he will chase a target in order to grab and drain their life energy. During this time shoot at him to break his shield and end the hunting phase.Successfully destroying the shield will knock Hans down leaving him open to gunfire for a few seconds and prevents him from healing.When a player is grabbed, immediately unload all the firepower you can on Hans. He may recover some amount of HP but if you can destroy his shield before he finishes the draining, you can cancel the attack and prevent him from recovering the full amount of HP the attack allows him to.Do not crowd around him to heal his target. If there are multiple players around him, he will release nerve gas around his body when he lets go of his target.He will drop his target after healing to full or if his shield is destroyed. His phase counter will increase by 1, all the cooldowns on his attacks will reset, his attack patterns and level of aggression will change.In Phase 1 Hans will never attempt to melee unless players get too close to him or are standing next to him as he finishes tossing grenades.In Phase 2 Hans will begin tossing HE grenades which can kill players in one hit if they are unarmored and standing directly on top of one. Make sure to dodge grenades before resuming attacking. Hans also uses his guns the least in this phase and will attempt to melee with his claws more often.In Phase 3 Hans will begin throwing barrages of nerve gas grenades which can cover a big chunk of the battlefield in gas. Gun usage frequency resets to normal and he will only melee when his guns and grenades are all on cooldown or when players get too close to him.In Phase 4 Hans will begin throwing barrages of HE grenades. He will attempt to spread them out as much as possible while targeting one or two players in an attempt to trap them with explosives in every direction. Take note of where his grenades land and focus on getting out of immediate danger zones before thinking about attacking him or you might be killed very quickly.In Phase 4 Hans will throw grenades very frequently and use his guns less often, instead preferring to melee with his claws. This phase is extremely dangerous as losing track of his grenades or being targeted by his melee can lead to swift deaths. Keep your distance as much as possible.It is highly recommended for each team member to purchase the HMTech-101 Pistol before this fight begins as it will allow for the team to heal each other throughout the battle. Seeing as Hans puts out quite a substantial amount of damage, and the HMTech-101 Pistol is relatively inexpensive, this action can vastly help your team to survive.In the absence of a Berserker it is also recommended that some team members carry a melee weapon (such as a Zweihander, Pulverizer or Katana to parry Hans' melee attacks. Hans' melee attacks are the most powerful in the game and he can easily rip apart unarmored players in 2 hits and being able to defend yourself when Hans charges at you is important.Successfully parrying some of his attacks can stumble him and cancel his melee which may prompt him to use his guns or toss grenades instead.

When the Patriarch spawns, he will walk slowly towards the team's position. Once he gains sight, he will cloak and charge at a random player.Once he becomes visible, the team should unload on him while keeping out of his melee range. He will repeatedly cloak and switch targets, going after players who are isolated or furthest away from his position.Every few seconds he will use his weapons to attack, and he will pick between the Minigun, Missile Launcher or Mortar based on what phase he is on.Fighting him in an enclosed location with a low ceiling will prevent him from using his devastating Mortar attack.He will use his weapons more frequently the more damaged he is.When his health drops to 42.5%, he will begin summoning lesser ZEDs to aid him. When his health drops to 35%, he will cloak and attempt to flee from the team.Once sufficiently far away from the team, he will inject himself with one of the three healing syringes strapped onto his leg, healing based on difficulty and number of syringes left. Refer to the table above for specific numbers.Once he has healed, ZEDs will stop spawning. He will then cloak and sprint back towards the team.If a player kills the lesser ZEDs while in his line of sight, he will target them first.Choose a location with many obstacles to block his line of sight to easily dodge his missiles and minigun. However, on Suicidal and Hell On Earth difficulty, there's a high chance that the Patriarch can walk while firing his minigun - Continue moving, even if you are around a corner, just to be safe.Never stand still and do not bunch up together as he can kill multiple players with missile/mortar splash damage easily or he will perform the clothesline attack if too many people are in close proximity to him.It is possible to kill him before he has a chance to flee and heal, by trapping him in an enclosed room, therefore ending the fight prematurely.It is highly recommended for each team member to purchase either the HMTech-101 Pistol or a Katana before this fight begins, as it will allow for the team to heal each other throughout the battle or parry the Patriarch's attacks when he decides to target you.